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Matrix Renewables Announces the Commissioning of Pleasant Valley Solar 1

LCG, April 15, 2025--Matrix Renewables announced today the successful commissioning of the Pleasant Valley Solar 1 power generation facility in Ada County, Idaho. The 200-MWac solar facility includes a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that was secured through negotiation with Meta and Idaho Power. Matrix Renewables states the facility is the largest operational solar facility in Idaho Power's system. Sundt Renewables, the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) services provider, completed construction of the project on March 2nd.

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Duke Energy Seeks to Extend Operating License for Robinson Nuclear Plant

LCG, April 9, 2025--Duke Energy announced yesterday its submission of a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the Robinson Nuclear Plant, a 759-MW nuclear unit located near Hartsville, South Carolina. The application requests extending the plant's operations for an additional 20 years.

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Industry News

Transcripts Suggest Top Enron Execs Knew of Market Manipulation

LCG, May 18, 2004--A former executive at Enron Corp. for regulatory affairs spoke with an energy trader in a way suggesting that Enron's chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and chairman Kenneth Lay were informed of manipulative power trading strategies involving purchases by California buyers, according to a transcript obtained by the Justice Department.

The routine transcript shows that the director of California regulatory affairs, Susan Mara, asked a trader during Sept. 14, 2000, "Do you know when you started overscheduling load and making buckets of money on that?" A trader involved in overscheduling could have made it appear that no more power could flow on a transmission line into California, creating the illusion that power shortages existed. The transcript, which was released by a municipal utility in Washington state, also quotes Mara as saying, "This is the time of year when government affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling."

The former chief of West Coast power trading, Timothy Belden, is found in another transcript saying of a power trader, "Well he makes... between one and two [million] a day, which never shows up on any curve shift... He steals money from California to the tune of about a million -". A request by another speaker to Belden to modify what has been said leads Belden to articulate, "He, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day."

Belden has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, and is aiding federal authorities in their investigation. Belden's attorney told the Los Angeles Times that the meaning of the conversation in the transcript could not be gleaned without knowledge of the rest of the exchange.
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